Being Blind
Picture This: there is a whole world around you of sound and touch smells. You hear the activity of people, the booming sounds of the world. You feel building and pets and clothing. But you can’t see it. The world to you is dark and murky. Maybe even black nothing. You have to navigate this busy bustling world without eyes.
Imagine tackling drug and alcohol abuse when you can’t even see. Try accessing a treatment program when you can’t just look it up and drive there. You need help every step of the way. You need to help with many things in life.
Maybe you’ve managed to become independent. You’ve figured things out. But drugs and alcohol came and turned it all upside down. Now you have to start over again, you need help. But there might not be the help you need nearby. Not like there is for other people.
You’re already set apart from the rest because of your blindness. Addiction only helps that further that isolation. Maybe it feels necessary to cope with a world moving on without you. But it’s not. Eventually, that will be realized.
There aren’t enough resources out there for treating drug and alcohol addiction in blind people. Accessibility is just not the standard and that’s a problem. People of all kinds need help, and they need it without jumping through hoops.
Accessibility
When someone who is blind needs treatment, the first thing they needed is a treatment center able to treat their needs. Many treatment programs aren’t even designed for those who can’t see. They are for people who can see and make those with blindness feel left out.
Many treatment programs involve reading. They follow the 12-step principles or something similar. They highlight passages, they write out discussions. They read. And they do not have these items in braille.
Unless there are braille or audio versions than this can lead to a blind person feeling just as left out as they always have. If they do have braille, well, not every blind person can read it. People just aren’t educated on what options the blind need.
Some people who are blind are not fully blind, and may just need large print. Too often this is still not available.
Treatment is needed for all people, and it needs to be accessible.